


Distraction

by ChronoXtreme



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Dorks in Love, F/M, Governmental something or other, Kissing, Listen to the wife Leo, Married Couple, Romantic Fluff, Teasing, Watch me pretending I know what I'm talking about, happy birthday leo!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 14:09:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19427542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChronoXtreme/pseuds/ChronoXtreme
Summary: Sometimes, the Prince Consort of Valla needs a little reminder about what's truly important in life.





	Distraction

The sound of pen scratching paper echoed throughout the bedroom as Leo wrote. _Another missive about grain production._ He’d gone through most of them already, trying to knock them out before breakfast. A plate of toast with tomato slices and cheese sat on the desk a safe distance away from ink and paper, half eaten. Rubbing his forehead, he turned back to the missive, jotting down the most important figures and facts into his notes. So much of governmental communication and paperwork was filled with formal fluff and meaningless diplomacy; to save himself time and a headache, he would simply abridge the information into his notebook. 

Next was a report to the judiciary council about the latest drafts of the dual citizenship charter he and Corrin had been working on. Carefully blowing on the ink so it wouldn’t smudge, he flipped through the pages of his notebook to the appropriate section. _I’ll have to word this carefully,_ he thought, the end of the pen pressing against his lower lip. The idea was revolutionary at best, downright ridiculous at worst to the council; most members considered themselves open-minded, but in actuality had very traditional ideas about the lower class. The notion of a peasantry who could move away from their land and travel through borders at will was perhaps a bit too much freedom for lords and ladies to stomach.

 _Esteemed lords and ladies of the Council,_ he began, careful to make his script more legible than his notes, _in reply to your request on the matters of the proviso Her Royal Majesty and I, Her loyal servant, have—_

“There you are.”

Thankfully, his jump didn’t streak a line of ink through the entire document. He turned, ready to snap some sort of request for a _warning_ next time, but any condemning thoughts died in his throat as he saw the figure standing in the doorway.

Corrin smiled as she drew close to him, her fingers brushing against his desk. Soft white and blue silks trailed down from her shoulders, parting to reveal her arms, while the rest of the ensemble hugged at the curves of her frame. She wore white leggings under the exquisite dress, as he could see from the slit that began at her left hip, and he smiled: though her role as queen of Valla meant that adventuring was far from her list of duties, she would never give up on being ready to tear off all the silken finery in the world to take on matters hands-on.

His smile dropped when she began speaking, however: “I’ve been looking for you for a while,” she said softly, her hand resting on his shoulder. “Why didn’t you come to breakfast?”

“I figured I would get a headstart on work for the day,” he replied, glancing back down at his notebook and the veritable sheaf of papers on the desk. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t even half as thick as he’d expected. 

“Leo.” Her voice was half amused, half exasperated. “I think you’d know you weren’t expected to lift a finger today.”

Though he understood the sentiment, he couldn’t help but think that was unreasonable. The needs of their fledgling kingdom didn’t take a break when he did; they hadn’t when he’d been a prince of Nohr, and they especially wouldn’t now, with the ground that still needed to be broken in Valla. But when he saw the melancholy in Corrin’s eyes, the way that her lips tugged down at the corners when she looked at the papers in front of him, well… 

“I’m almost done,” he lied, giving her a small smile.

“And how long have you been working on these?” Corrin asked knowingly, her eyebrows furrowed as Leo placed the pen back in the inkwell. 

He looked up, then froze; the sun was already at its apex in the sky. Gods, was it that late already?

“There’s my answer.” A soft sigh passed Corrin’s lips. Then: “I think you,” she said, her crimson eyes glinting mischievously, “need a distraction.”

Leo raised an eyebrow, then froze as she slipped over the arm of his chair and settled neatly into his lap, her fingers settling on his shoulders. _Oh… Oh dear._ His mouth suddenly went dry, and he didn’t miss the blush on Corrin’s cheeks as he licked his lips. “Corrin,” he said, trying to keep his voice steady. “What are you doing?”

“Distracting you,” she said innocently. Of course, the look in her eyes was completely opposite of innocent as she leaned towards him. “I think it’s working.”

The kiss to his brow was chaste, tender, even. But they both knew it was just the strike of the match before it fell on oil.

“The report’s due tomorrow,” he said, then stiffened again as Corrin pecked his cheek. “What are you doing?” he asked, swallowing again.

“I told you already,” she said sweetly. “And for every excuse you make, I’ll give you a kiss.”

His ears felt like they had caught on fire. But he couldn’t resist the smirk on his lips. “Then, naturally, if I have nothing to do, you’ll leave me alone?”

The second the words left his mouth, he realized they had come out wrong. _Leave me alone?_ That wasn’t his intention at all — though their teasing could get a little barbed at times, he could never think of her as a pest, someone to be pushed away. But the glint in her eyes left, and he winced as her shoulders sank a bit. “Oh. Then, um, I guess… I guess you’ve got work to do.” Her weight shifted as she made to rise from the chair. 

Then, she actually gasped as Leo’s hands caught her by the hips, sitting her back down in his lap. _Damn the reports. This is my wife._ And though people judged him on the outside, called him cold and distant and unfeeling, he was not that man. He could never be that man. Not to her.

“I’m positively swamped, Corrin,” he said, running his thumb along her jawline. “There’s the tax revision due in a week.”

The look of confusion on her face was absolutely adorable. “Uh, what?” she asked.

“Well?” he asked, smiling at the blush on her cheeks. He still hadn’t released her hips. “For every excuse I give, you give me a kiss. Aren’t those your terms?” 

For a moment, she still stared at him with that heartwarming befuddlement. Then, she grinned with a smile so radiant it was almost blinding, and her chuckle brought a grin to his own lips. “Right. How silly of me to forget.” And he was rewarded with a kiss on the tip of his nose. “Hmm. Any more?”

“The judicial review,” he reminded her, his thumbs rubbing circles idly into the smooth silk of her dress. “And the Nohrian coalition’s policy about land division.”

Two kisses to his eyelids. He couldn’t help the laugh that had built in his chest at her feather light touches. She giggled in turn, placing another kiss to his jaw. “Mm,” he hummed, looking up at her. “And what excuse was that for?”

“Maybe it was my own excuse,” she said, her cheeks flushed. “About the whole ‘distracting you’ thing.”

“Then let’s dispense with the excuses,” Leo murmured, raising his hand to cup her flushed cheek. Her warmth bled into his fingers, and he savored the sensation. 

Her response was to kiss him this time on his lips, and he leaned back into the chair, smiling against her mouth as she leaned against him. It was an easy, lazy kiss, gentle and pure and sweet as her laughter. Her hands rested against his chest, and he could almost feel the skin of her palms through the thin linen of his shirt. 

They parted, and he looked up at her, at the woman who had breathed life back into him again. Who breathed life into him every time she smiled and laughed and whispered her love to him. A part of him wondered why he’d been so insistent on doing that paperwork in the first place — what part of ruling a kingdom was more important than cherishing the most important person in his life? Another part of him chastised that thought for its selfish reasoning: he was Prince Consort to the Queen of the restored kingdom of Valla. His first duty had to be to their people.

As he stared at her, however, her vermillion eyes sparkling in the light of the noonday sun, the thought came to his mind: _Not always. Before you are a prince, before you are a politician, before you are a sorceror, you are a husband._

That was one role he fulfilled with pride. 

So he returned her kiss, his fingers tangling through her silky hair, his entire body flooding with warmth and light as her lips moved with his own. There was more passion in this kiss, almost a keen desperation from Leo’s part to prove that she really was important above all else, that nothing could come before her or her wellbeing. All he wanted was to submerge himself in this moment — the feeling of her hands against his chest, her lips parting against his own, the softness of her hair between his fingers, the warmth of her body in his arms — and never surface ever again. 

Breaking apart for breath, Corrin’s fingers curled into his shirt as her chest rose and fell, her cheeks glowing almost as brightly as her eyes. “You… You know, I brought you a present,” she breathed, and gods, just the sound of her voice nearly made him want to melt in his chair. “I-If you want to—” 

“Later,” he murmured, kissing her cheeks. No material thing could compare to the woman sitting in his lap, after all. “If… If that’s all right.” 

“Just fine,” she whispered, her lips ghosting against his brow. And then, softly whispered before she kissed him once more:

“Happy birthday, Leo.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Though it's certainly cutting it a bit late, here's a birthday fic for Leo that's a lot happier than the work I had in mind to post! 
> 
> Some notes, for the curious:
> 
> Yes, I imagine Leo to be a workaholic. Not that he ignores his family, per se: he just has a hard time with the idea that, well, he needs time for himself as well. Even on his birthday.
> 
> Why did it take so long for Corrin to find Leo? Why in the world didn't she look for him in their bedroom first, of all places? What was the gift she had for him? To answer each of these (because yes, they are connected): Leo's stack of paperwork wasn't as thick as usual because Corrin got up ridiculously early to do it for him. His present was a finished stack, including that dual-citizenship proviso, of everything he would need to cover for the day. Why then, did he still have paperwork to do? Aside from copies for the both of them, unfortunately a government generates constant work for the monarchy to do - and Corrin may or may not have underestimated just how much paperwork Leo can get through in a day. :)
> 
> I hope you enjoy!


End file.
